The Heart of Jencarlos Canela

Jencarlos Canela is steaming up the small screen with his latest telenovela Mi Corazón Insiste, from Telemundo. This 23 year-old Cuban-American, award-winning singer and actor also recently launched his second album Un Nuevo Día collaborating with greats like José Feliciano and Gilberto Santarosa. Canela took time between takes to speak with us about his love scenes with costar Carmen Villalobos, his experience working with legend Angélica María and what ultimately drives him.

What type of character is Andrés Santacruz, the character you play in Mi Corazón Insiste?
My character is very passionate, a lover, he believes in love and is capable of anything when it comes to fighting for his happiness. He is a guy that doesn’t care about what other people think, he cares what his heart and soul tell him. There is a battle within Andrés to always be honest with himself. He is impulsive which can help or hinder him. He is also an adrenalin addict. He’s crazy and has the soul of a hippie.

Are you like Andrés?
I also like extremes. I love adrenalin, am very passionate. I am love’s number one fan and because of that, I am capable of anything. I don’t really care about what other people say because there will always be critics. In the end, an act can be interpreted in many ways and you have to fight for what you think is right and you can’t really care about people judging you. You have to be happy and fight for your happiness. This is the way that I am most like Andrés.

You mentioned that you love an adrenalin rush. Explain.
I am an adrenaline junky. My dream is to sky dive and throw myself off a plane. I do my own stunts in the movies and in the soap operas I’ve been in. I like to go head on, full action. When you do things with passion and you do things intense, I think you can get an adrenaline rush out of anything. That’s one of the main reasons I love music. It’s such a rush to get on stage and sing in front of thousands of people or to be in the studio and sing a song.

How are your scenes with your co-star Carmen Villalobos?
I swear the chemistry that I feel with her is just beyond my understanding. It just flows—it feels so good. Not only when we’re on set, but off set. The chemistry is just great. That’s a breath of fresh air because it would be horrible to be “in love” with a person that you can’t stand. It’s not the case here. She’s beautiful on the inside and out. She’s a great actress; it’s a pleasure to be working with her.

How about working with the famous Angélica María?
We’re seeing Angélica María in this soap opera like we’ve never seen her before. We’re used to seeing this lady with so much class, a queen. In this soap opera, she gets down and dirty. I’m talking about everything from her clothes to her attitude. It is fun to work with someone like her. I’ve looked up to her my whole life. I love her to death. I’m learning from her every day.

Talking about work, tell me a little bit about your music. You recorded a song for the movie HOP in Spanish?
We did the “Caramelo” song. I heard that the movie did great its first week out. I’m very excited about that. We were doing tons of things getting the second album ready. We were still touring with the first one so we came a little late into that project, but it was worth it because we had a great time and formed a great relationship with Universal Pictures.

What else are you doing with your music?
We’ve got the second album done. It’s called Un Nuevo Día. The album is like a chef salad. There is a little bit of everything, but it’s not too much of one thing and too little of another. There are some ballads, a little reggae, songs with some rock and blues influence. There is an electro-mambo that I wrote and did with Pitbull and Cata. We don’t want people to label us or say, “He’s a ballad singer, or he’s a pop singer, or he’s a reggaeton singer.” I think that if you’re a musician—our responsibility with our people and our fans is not only to be there for them in a candlelight dinner with a ballad having a glass of wine with their boyfriend or girlfriend, but also be there for them on the way to the club, in the club, in the backyard drinking some beer during a barbecue.

How about recording the song for the Telenovela? How did that come about?
I came to them with what we thought the first single of the album was going to be. They liked the song so much that they said, “We want that song to be the main theme for the soap opera.” They even changed the name of the telenovela to the name of the song. That was amazing.

What do you consider yourself more an actor or a singer?
Definitely a singer. I started with music. I graduated from the New World School of the Arts. I sang opera for four years in five languages. I studied piano, guitar, percussion… so all my life I’ve been around the music industry. I wrote my first song when I was six. It came out really bad, but hey I tried. When I was seven, I sang for the first time. I studied acting for many years and more than anything theater. I never imagined I was going to be in a telenovela. Definitely, I’m a musician before an actor.

When did you know that you wanted to be an actor?
I didn’t know. I just focused on music and I liked acting because it was another form of expression, another form of art that I identify with. From the technique that I come from, real acting is when you don’t act at all. It’s not about putting on masks or pretending to be someone you’re not, it’s about finding the character within you. I’ve been able to learn a lot about myself through every character. That’s what mostly caught my attention about acting and why I love it. It’s become one of my passions.

You were born and raised in Miami. You speak perfect English. What made you go in to the U.S. Latin market instead of the U.S. English market?
It just happened. I’ve sung and acted in English my whole life. My father is my manager. He doesn’t speak English, but he’s amazing at what he does. My father believed in me from the beginning and he said, “I’m going to support you. I’m going to get us gigs and I’m going to make it happen.” I think that’s where it started because most of his connections were in the Spanish industry. I think that he’s incredible at what he does; I think without him I would be nowhere. I’m glad that I started with the Hispanic side because those are my roots. There are a lot of things going on now in the English market so I hope to bring that Hispanic audience with us and never abandon them. I want to be able to go back and forth between both markets because I love them. They’re a part of who I am.

So you’re interested in doing the crossover…
Oh, for sure. We’re on it already. There is one English song in this Spanish album called “All I Need is Your Love.” We’re working with mainstream producers so I think it’s a matter of time before we get the right team behind it and hopefully doors will start opening in the mainstream market on the acting side and on the music side as well, so fingers crossed. All we can do is keep working hard and see what happens.

Is there still a dream you’re going after?
I’ve always seen music and acting as tools to accomplish what we really want. I think the intention you do art with is everything. When you use the tools given to you for a greater purpose, not just to become famous or make money, that’s when you’re living your dream. That’s when you’re doing the right thing and that’s what it’s about. Whoever does this for money is in the wrong business because you’ve got to do it for a long time before you start seeing a buck. You’ve got to do it out of love and passion, that’s basically what it comes down to. Our greater purpose is to help. To be able to one day use our name, our music or whatever it is, to help where it is needed and make a difference for the better.